(Paper) IAS Mains Previous Years Paper : Public Administration (1985)

IAS Mains Previous Years Paper : Public Administration (1985)

PAPER - I
SECTION A
1. Answer any three of the following in not more than 200 words each:
(a) What factors you would consider for determining the span of Management of an enterprise?
(b) Define ‘informal groups’ and ‘formal groups’. How do you harmonies the two while designing an organization?
(c) Discuss alternative methods used for decision making under uncertainly.
(d) Examine the role of national income analysis in business forecasting?

2. Formulate a Hypothesis on any problem. Recommend with basis, the process of testing such hypothesis.

3. Give your assessment of the impact of recent changes in Industrial Policy on enterprise decisions.and plans in India.

SECTION B
PART I (Marketing Management)
4. Answer any three of the following in not more than 200 words each:
(a) Differentiate marketing strategy in rural and urban areas of any one product.
(b) How do you measure sales-force efficiency? Give appropriate ifiustrations.
(c) Give your assessment of fre trade zohes in export promotion.
(d) Formulate a marketing communication mix for computer sales in India.

5. What are the differences between ‘Descriptive’ and ‘Experimental’ Research design in Marketing Research? Elaborate different methods of any one research design. 

6. Critically examine the role of State Trading Organizations in export promotion in India.

PART—II (Production and Materials Management)
7. Answer any three of the following in not more than 200 words each:
(a) What are the factors considered for deciding location of a plant
(b) Under what conditions, one selects job-shop production to that of line assembly process?
(c) How will you minimize time and cost overruns in completing a project?
(d) How are Make or Buy decisions made? Discuss with illustrations.

8. What are the causes of ‘Industrial wastes’ in India? Suggest methods to minimize the industrial waste.

9. To make a choice of the types of attribute sampling inspection one has to consider the relative costs benefits of their various types and ultimate purpose of quality assurance. Explain.

PART— III (Financial Management)
10. Answer any three of the following in not more than 200 words each:
(a) How do you use ‘Sensitivity Analysis’ for evaluating an investment project?
(b) Which are the transactions that effect working capital of a firm and how?
(c) What are the methods for measuring cost of equity capital? Give your recommendations.
(d) How will you proceed to develop a performance budget in a giant industrial unit?

11. How do ‘leverage ratios’ help in determining long term solvency of a firm? State if these nations can be exclusive criterion for deciding loan sanction by Indian Financial Institutions. Give reasons.

12. Critically examine the hypothesis of “irrelevance of dividends” and its relevance to UTI, LIC and IDBI.

PART—IV (Personnel Management)
13. Answer any three of the following in not more than 200 words each:
(a) How does an organization create a reliable supply of personnel?
(b) What are different types of interviews used in Personnel Management? Explain their utility in Indian perspective.
(c) What is the difference between ‘project sharing’ and ‘bonus payment’? Critically examine the feasibility of introducing project haring in Indian firms.
(d) Is workers participation in management conductive to industrial peace ? Justify your answer.

14. What are the management styles in practice in Public Sector arid Private companies in India? Is there any convergence of style? Discuss.

15. What is the machinery for the plrevention and settlement of disputes available in India? Give your evaluation of machinery adopted frequently in India

PAPER - II
SECTION A
1. Comment on any three of the following in not more than 200 words each:
(a) “The ability to administer other people is a skill, an art…… It is a practical art, and practice is essential to make it perfect — much practice. But practice wholly divorced from study is likely to be limited in its results...”
(b) “The job descriptions that are needed for organization planning must be directed towards hierarchical relationship and responsibilities.”
(c) “The critical knowledge and the indispensable skill for effective supervision is nothing less than personal leadership.”
(d) “The proper: determination of positions which can be filled by selection of the ablest employees for advancement... and the proper balance between inside and outside recruitment lie at the very heart of good personnel administration.”

2. (a) “Because the person who accepts proposals may do so for a variety of motives, there will be seen in any organization a number of different types of authority relationship, corresponding to these different motives for acceptance.” Explain.
(b) Examine the view that “when one understands the relations between line and overhead units, he also understands the problem of central-field relations.”

3. (a) Discuss the functional prerequisites of decision making.
(b) “Coordination..., is the determining principle of organization, the form which contains all other principle, the beginning and end of all organized effort.” Elucidate.

4. (a) Discuss the forms and techniques of Legislative control over administrative agencies. What are their limitations?
(b) Examine the role of O & M as a technique of administrative management and discuss the qualities essential for an O & M officer.

SECTION B
5. Comment on any three of the following in not more than 200 words each:
(a) “The State shall, in particular, direct its policy towards, securing...that the operation of the economic system does not result the concentration of wealth and means of production to the common detriment.” (Article 39 (c) of the Constitution of India.”)
(b) “The Rules of Business, Secretariat Instructions and Office Manuals seem to be generally too didactic and confining, too detailed and unimaginative… They seem to assume and to. encourage that literal mindedness which damps the spirit, imagination and judgment which are important to good administration.”
(c) “The Comptroller and Auditor General function is not really a very important one. Auditors don’t know, and can’t be expected to know, very much about good administration. What auditors know is auditing— which is not administration; it is a necessary but highly pedestrian with a narrow perspective and very limited usefulness.”
(d) “Sadly enough, Panchayati Raj has not received fair treatment at the hands of those who have been holding the resins of political power in the land”

6. (a) Give, in brief, an evaluation of the Indian administrative system as an instrument of economic and ‘social change.
(b) “The British concept of the single British District Officer or Collector, coordinating all authority in all departments over an entire area in his hands still continues to be an important texture of the local administrative structure and colours the whole of its operations.” Examine the validity of this observation.

7. (a) Examine the view, that the success of parliamentary democracy in India requires a radical change in its party system.
(b) “No civil service can insulate itself from its ecology, and the state-level bureaucracy in India has remained much more exposed to political forces and pressures.” Discuss.

8. (a) “The problems of administrative appraisal are very considerable indeed However, we can reasonably, start by considering two opposite but well-entrenched types of cultural belief. One is that the appropriate controller of specialists should himself be a specialist. The other is that the controller should be an administrator who is well versed in public policy needs and administrative ‘feasibility’, but has no other relevant qualifications.” Discuss, with reference to the situation in India, the relative merits of the two views.

(b) Examine the utility of the Lokpal and the Lokayukta as special institutions meant for the redressal of citizens’ grievances.